In the packaging of smoking articles, particularly cigarettes, there are a variety of different types of packs. The traditional soft pack is of conventional flexible paper consistency and merely provides a wrapper and holder for the cigarettes without affording any damage protection for the product. The other common type of pack is known as a hard pack and it is formed of a rigid material, often paperboard, which retains its generally rectangular configuration independent of the presence of cigarettes within.
Both types of packages have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, the soft pack is advantageous in that it offers minimum resistance to collapse or flattening as cigarettes are removed. In fact, when empty the pack is crumbled and discarded. Without any resistance to deformation, the soft pack produces no discomfort when in one's pocket. On the other hand, the soft pack offers not protection to the cigarettes contained therein and application of a minimum amount of force can cause damage to the cigarettes sufficient to render them unusable which can happen quite easily, for example, when the soft pack is contained in a person's pocket.
Conversely, the hard pack offers protection for the cigarettes since it is sufficiently rigid so that the pack can withstand substantial force before deforming and permitting damage to the cigarettes. This is true whether the pack is partially or entirely full of cigarettes. Naturally, due to the rigidity of the package, the corners and edges of the rectangularly shaped hard pack can cause discomfort particularly when the hard pack is contained in one's pocket or other article of clothing.
Early examples of collapsible boxes for smoking articles are contained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 405,413 and 1,122,513 which disclose small cigar boxes. Additionally, various types of collapsible cigarette boxes have been developed over the years. Examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,904,169; 2,988,261, 3,058,581; 3,125,213; and 3,272,320.
It would certainly be an improvement in the cigarette packaging field and the smoking article field in general to provide a cigarette pack which has advantages present in both the hard and soft pack discussed above and which alleviates the undesirable traits of both types of package. Naturally, an improved package which produces this result would have to be one which is inexpensive and can be easily and efficiently assembled thereby maintaining the manufacturing costs at the same relative level as presently exist with the soft and hard packs.
Naturally, the type of package under consideration is also useful in many instances with a variety of other types of products in addition to smoking articles. Examples of teachings relating to collapsible box-like structures for foods and other articles are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,680,557; 3,630,430; 2,984,401; and 3,083,890.